Official figures disclose shocking rate of reoffending by thousands of freed
inmates

One in 12 criminals go on to commit another offence just days after being released from prison, it has been disclosed.

New figures show more than 5,000 convicts carried out new crimes within 18 days of being let out.

“The public will be horrified."

Andy Slaughter MP

The data poses a new headache for Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, who has pledged root-and-branch reform of rehabilitation in jails.

It means victims are suffering crimes including violence and sex attacks at the hands of offenders who have just been released.

Official statistics revealed that in 2013 – the latest data available – 8.6 per cent of released prisoners were later convicted of a crime committed within 18 days of their release.

Andy Slaughter, the shadow justice minister who obtained the figures, said: “The public will be horrified to learn that almost one in 10 prisoners go on to commit more crime in little more than two weeks after their release.

“Michael Gove must take immediate action and face up to crisis in our prisons.”

Michael Gove Photo: Micha Theiner/City AM / Rex Features

Philip Davies, a Conservative MP who site on the Commons’ all-party justice select committee, said: “There are thousands of people who are completely unnecessary victims of crime because if the criminals had still been locked up finishing their full sentences they would not have been out causing harm.”

More than 60,000 adults and juveniles were released from jails in England and Wales in 2013 after serving jail terms for committing crimes.

Of these, 8.6 per cent re-offended within 18 days – making a total of nearly 5,200.

The Justice Secretary has condemned poor re-offending rates and last year began to outline new plans to reform the prison system in a bid to break the “revolving door” cycle of crime.